When you are the leading content management system in the world and the online publishing platform of choice used by millions of businesses and loved by thousands of website developers and web designers, it’s inevitable that at some point in time, WordPress will come under attack from hackers.
In early 2013 a large-scale brute force attack began hitting WordPress installations on almost every WP hosting server in existence.
These attacks were caused by networks of infected computers programmed to attack other vulnerable installations (called “botnets”).
How To Protect Your WordPress Site From A Brute-Force Attack
Brute-Force Attacks
A brute-force attack is a technique used to break an encryption or authentication system by trying all possibilities.
(Source: Chinese University Of Hong Kong)
There are many methods hackers use to try and break into a WordPress site. One of these is by trying to guess the site admin’s login username and password. This can be done with software tools that automatically tries to guess hundreds of login permutations in minutes.
If you’re using obvious login details, your website can be an easy target for hacking attempts.
This is called a “brute force” login attack.
What Is A Botnet?
A botnet is a number of Internet-connected computers communicating with other similar machines in an effort to complete repetitive tasks and objectives. This can be as mundane as keeping control of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel, or it could be used to send spam email or participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks. The word botnet is a combination of the words robot and network.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
A “Botnet” is a network of private computers that have been infected with malicious scripts or software, which can then be controlled remotely as a group, typically without the computer owners’ knowledge or awareness.
Botnets are typically used to send out mass spam emails from computers of compromised user accounts.
Below is a screenshot taken from a site that monitors online security showing the locations of the command centers of a botnet that has been actively compromising computer networks all around the world since 2009 called “Zeus” …
(ZeuS is a botnet that has been actively infecting computer networks all around the world since 2009. Image: SecureList.com)
These ongoing botnet attacks were highly distributed and well organized. Over 90,000 IP addresses were identified by several hosting companies in the initial attack alone, when millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress users administration areas took place. The large-scale brute-force attacks continued after this, with over 30,000 WordPress sites and blogs being hacked per day.
News of the April 2013 large-scale brute force botnet attack was reported by all the major webhosting companiesand leading technology media publications, such as Forbes, TechNews Daily, BBC News, Tech Crunch, PC Magazine, and even on the official website of the US Department of Homeland Security …
(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, making it a target for attempted hacking attacks)
Does This Mean We Should Stop Using WordPress?
No. In fact, there are lots of very good reasons why you should continue using WordPress if you are concerned at all about the security of your web presence.
To learn what makes WordPress a very secure platform for websites, see this article: Why WordPress Is A Secure Platform For Websites –
It’s important to understand that, in the case of the large-scale brute force botnet attack described above, no specific WordPress vulnerability was being exploited (the same script was also attacking sites built using other platforms like Joomla).
Mike Little, the co-founder of WordPress, said this about the brute force attacks:
It is a “simple” script that attempts to login using the admin login and a generated password. So if your password is too short or based on dictionary words it will be guessed and then the script can login legitimately and do whatever it wants including installing scripts (as plugins) or editing files. The attack tries to guess your password, if it succeeds, the most secure site in the world is wide open because they have your password.
Protecting Your WordPress Website From Being Brute-Force Attacked – Ten Security Points
You may think that your website is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that all websites have some value to a malicious user.
If hackers can hack into and remotely take control of your blog, your web site can then be employed to target larger and more valuable web sites.
Additional undesirable consequences of having your website hacked and your site security compromised include getting blacklisted by search engines, having spammy links promoting things like online meds, porn, etc. in your content, malicious redirects to phishing sites and other websites, drive-by downloads (adding malicious software on your visitors’ computers), and lots of other nasty things.
The reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely trying to hack into your site while you are reading these very words. Whether they can be successful will depend on how hard you can make it for them to keep persisting until they work out a way to get in, or give up and go look for an easier target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Check Screenshot source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the scan returns various results and information about your WordPress installation …
(WP security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can freely access all of this information about your WordPress website, so can hackers.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
If your site or blog runs on WordPress and you’re not taking appropriate steps to bolster the security of your site, then it’s practically guaranteed that, at some time in the near future, your site will be hacked, or at least targeted by bots, because these brute force attacks are systematically targeting WordPress sites worldwide!
Typically, whenever a site gets broken into, blog owners will find themselves completely “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been modified or even that their content has been entirely wiped out. Typically, most sites will become infected with malicious scripts or viruses without the owner even being aware that this has happened.
To help avoid the heartache and frustration (and significant loss of valuable business data) that comes with discovering that your web site has been hacked into, below are 10 simple, yet essential and effective security measures that will help to protect your WordPress site from being brute-force attacked.
Note: Some of the recommended measures shown below need some technical understanding of how to modify core WordPress and server files. If you are not technical, or don’t want to mess around with file code, then ask your web host or search for a WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.
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Security Measure #1 – Get In Touch With Your Host
Contact your webhosting provider and ask them what systems have been put into place to protect your site from being attacked, and what is done to make sure that your WordPress sites are regularly being backed up.
It is important to make sure that your host is backing up your server files and that, if disaster strikes, you can quickly and easily recover your files and data.
Security Measure #2 – Back Up Your WordPress Data And Files And Keep Your Website Regularly Updated
You should never rely only on your web host for site backups. Instead, learn how to manage your WordPress site or get this done for you and develop a habit of performing a full WordPress site maintenance routine on a regular basis (e.g. weekly, monthly, etc …)
A complete WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:
- All unnecessary files and data are removed,
- All WP files and data are free of errors, optimized and backed up,
- All themes, plugins and software components are up-to-date,
- etc …
A complete WordPress site maintenance routine looks like this …
(Maintaining your WP web site regularly backed up and up-to-date is vitally important for WordPress security. Screenshot image: WPTrainMe.com)
Again, we cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain your WordPress website or blog completely backed up and updated. WP site maintenance is not hard or time-consuming, but it must be done to ensure the security of your website or blog. If you don’t want to learn how to do WP site maintenance yourself, pay someone to do it but make sure this gets done. Backing up your website is the second most important thing you should do after making sure that your heart is still beating!
If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator Plugin For WP
Security Measure #3 – Do Not Use “Admin” As The Admin Username
the worldwide brute force botnet attack on WordPress is mostly an attempt to compromise website administrator panels by exploiting WordPress sites with “admin” as the user name.
For reasons of website security, avoid installing WordPress sites with the username “admin”. This is the first area hackers will test. If your site’s username is “admin”, then change it immediately.
For a tutorial for admin users that shows you how to change your username, go here: How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A More Secure Username
Security Measure #4 – Use Strong Passwords
A “brute force” attack occurs when malicious software continually hits a login or password field with different character strings trying to guess the right combination that will unlock your site.
Unless you put some measure in place to stop the brute force attack (see further below for a couple of effective ways to do this), the “bot” will just keep attacking your site until it eventually works out the combination.
Passwords that are easy to guess, therefore, become very easy targets for brute force attacks. Make sure that you change your password combination to a string that is at least 8 characters long, with both upper and lowercase letters, combined with “special” characters (^%$#&@*).
If you have trouble coming up with strong passwords or you are reluctant to set up different passwords for all your online logins, then use a password program like Roboform …
(You can use a password management program like Roboform to help you generate really secure passwords)
For a simple tutorial created especially for admin users that shows you how to change your password, go here: How To Reset Passwords In WordPress
Security Measure #5 – Prevent Access To Your wp-config.php File
The wp-config.php file contains information about your website’s database and is used to define advanced WordPress options.
(WP Config file)
If hackers break into your WordPress website, they will search for your wp-config.php file, because this is the file that contains your database information, security keys, etc. Getting access to this information would allow someone to change anything in your database, create a user account, upload files and take control of your site.
To protect your WordPress site from attacks and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, prevent people from accessing your wp-config.php file. This requires knowing how to edit database information, move files around in your server and changing access permissions.
Security Measure #6 – Delete Or Rename Unnecessary Installation Files
Rename or delete your install.php, upgrade.php and readme.html files.
These files are not required after installation. If you don’t want to delete these files, just rename them.
Security Measure #7 – Upgrade Your WordPress Site, Themes & Plugins To Their Latest Version
Hackers search for vulnerabilities in older versions of WordPress that can be exploited, including out-of-date versions of WordPress themes and plugins.
Make sure to always keep your WordPress installation files, themes, plugins, etc. up-to-date.
Security Measure #8 – Disable Your WordPress Theme Editor
WordPress installations come with a built-in editor that allows site administrators to edit plugin and theme files from the dashboard area.
In WordPress, you can access the WordPress Theme Editor by selecting Appearance > Editor in your admin menu …
(Accessing the WordPress theme editor using the WP main menu)
This means that anyone logging into your site’s admin can view and edit your WP theme files, and create mayhem on your site.
To prevent unauthorized people from accessing the WordPress Theme editor, you will need to disable it. This can be done by adding code to your wp-config.php file.
Security Measure #9 – Secure Your Site’s Uploads Directory
The WordPress “uploads” directory stores all the media files that get uploaded to your blog.
Normally, this folder is visible to anyone online. All a person needs to do to view all of the contents stored in your “uploads” directory is navigate to your directory using a web browser …
(WordPress uploads directory)
If any directories in your website have weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers or malicious users, this could seriously threaten the security of your website.
Protecting your directories will prevent online users from viewing your ‘uploads’ folder and other important directories. This can be done using plugins, setting file permissions, adding a blank index.php file (this is literally a blank file called “index.php”) to your uploads directory, and so on. Again, it’s best to hire a professional if you are not sure about what to do.
Security Measure #10 – Install WordPress Security Plugins
There are some great WordPress security plugins available that will address common security issues WordPress website owners face, such as preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to vital areas of your site, protecting your site from malicious exploits, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.
Most WordPress plugins address some but not all areas of WordPress security. One security plugin that seems to do a comprehensive job of scanning, fixing and preventing potential issues that could lead to hackers accessing your files and causing irreparable damage to your site is SecureScanPro.
(SecureScanPro – security software solution for WordPress)
SecureScanPro is easy to install and easy to use, and addresses most of the security issues that WordPress users need to address.
Another great security plugin you may want to look at using is BlogDefender.
Blog Defender
(Blog Defender)
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
BlogDefender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress installation are …
And lets you quickly fix these …
If you don’t want to purchase a premium security plugin like SecureScanPro or BlogDefender, you can use various free WordPress plugins, such as Limit Login Attempts …
WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, plugins and themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of web security.
As one last reminder of the importance of keeping your websites protected, below is the advice given by an expert on website security to all WordPress users following the large-scale brute force attacks on WordPress in 2013 …
Owners of websites based on WordPress CMS must improve at least basic security settings and implement best practices such as the use of robust passwords and the accurate management of “admin” accounts.
Pierluigi Paganini, Chief Information Security Officer, Security Affairs
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As you can see, WordPress security is of the utmost importance if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, the information in this article has provided you with the initial guidelines and direction you need to keep your WordPress site protected from brute-force attacks. If you need any further help or assistance with WordPress security, please seek help from a professional WordPress security specialist, or search for a professional WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.
Also, please subscribe to WPCompendium.org to be notified whenever we publish new articles on WordPress security and reviews of new WordPress security plugins and solutions.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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